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Report: Obama Says Democracy Is Bigger Than Any One Person; Clinton to Make First Public Appearance Since Conceding; Speculation That Christie Is Not in Favor Because of Jared Kushner; Trump and Pence Are in Contact With 29 Foreign Leaders; Border Crossings Surge Before Trump Takes Office

Aired November 16, 2016 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The next American President and I could not be more different. We have very different points of view but American democracy is bigger than any one person and in a multiethnic, multiracial, multicultural society like the United States, democracy can be especially complicated.

Believe me, I know. But it's better than the alternatives. It allows us to correct for mistakes. Any action by a President or any result of an election or any legislation that has proven flawed can be corrected through the process of democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He was answering questions from reporters here in the U.S. He is a tad more candid overseas there with the media. So, that's the President of the United States. Meantime, Hillary Clinton, I can tell you, will make her first public appearance since losing the Presidential election last week. Tonight, she will be honored by the Children's Defense Fund in Washington D.C. where she worked in the 1970s.

Everyone will be watching, of course, listening closely to see what she says after this devastating loss for her. Or will she comment on the direction of the country under a Trump presidency? Just a week ago she was full of grace, congratulatory to the President-elect, but there are some who believe Hillary Clinton has been too civilized in conceding. The "Washington Post" columnist I get to talk in a moment will talk to me about this. He is Richard Cohen. Such a pleasure to meet you.

RICHARD COHEN, COLUMNIST "WASHINGTON POST": Great to be here.

BALDWIN: I talked a lot about you in your piece, you know, with some guest yesterday, let's lump President Obama and even Hillary Clinton in the same category of being too nice. Is that what you see?

COHEN: I thought so and I thought Obama just recently showed -- said something I thought was telling. He said he and Donald Trump have different points of view, they have different points of view, they have different moralities. Obama is not a liar; Trump is not a liar. Trump is a liar.

Obama isn't the guy who raised the racial issue by saying no one ever said Trump wasn't born in this country. Obama never mocked the handicapped. This was an election that must be pointed out that this guy is a totally unqualified man to occupy the White House and people have to be alert to that. I have this whole -- this idea that he won the election and now he's a unifier because almost a week has gone by before he said something insulting and without him saying something insulting is a very low bar for a President. He has to do better than that.

BALDWIN: But he won.

COHEN: I'm not contesting the election. I'm not saying repeal the election. I'm not one of those. I'm saying don't forget how he won. Don't forget who he is because he's a dangerous man to be in the White House.

BALDWIN: What do you make, then, of the protesters across the country? There are students walking out of universities as we speak but the majority of the protesters who were arrested in Oregon didn't vote. Didn't vote. Do they have a right to be protesting then?

COHEN: Sure, they have a right to be protesting. I don't like the fact they don't vote. Young people have very low voter participation. I think the same thing was true during the Vietnam war. A lot of young people protested but didn't vote because they had no stake in society, they still feel this is their country and they have a right to protest. I think this could be the beginning of kind of rolling demonstrations that will continue as an aggregation of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Occupy Wall Street movement and a kind of disgust at Trump.

BALDWIN: Trump turned to the camera during the "60 minutes" interview and said "stop, you have to stop."

COHEN: YES.

BALDWIN: The violence. Some of the violence. Some of the unrest.

COHEN: Oh, of course, you have to stop. Right. -- you can't excuse violence and certainly it's a bad thing. But coming out and protesting is very American.

BALDWIN: What about Hillary Clinton and the fact that she's speaking at the museum this evening to the Children's Defense Fund. What would you like to hear her say?

COHEN: I think she should have an edge but it's a tough spot for her. This is like going home. The Children's Defense Fund is where she started so it would be very tough. This is about children, about underprivileged children. It tells you so much about Hillary Clinton that this is where she comes, the first stop, after this rigorous awful debilitating campaign. She'll honor this commitment. You can't say anything like that about Donald Trump. You can't say that he has a charity, a foundation, an interest that he thinks of anything outside of himself. We'll see if he changes. I'd be surprised. He's not a kid.

[15:35:00] BALDWIN: Okay, Richard Cohen, thank you. Come by any time. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, Donald Trump loyalists are being rewarded as the President-elect makes his transition to the white house. But again, and again we're hearing about big donors, powerful Republicans being shut out. What CNN has learned about what is happening behind closed doors in Trump Tower.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Trump Tower the epicenter of the political world this week, who is who of the Washington heavy weights and beyond are passing through those doors. Not just transition team insiders, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio spent some

time this morning with the President-elect. [15:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: Even though I have very real differences with the President-elect, he is a New Yorker, he love this is city. But I thought it was very important for him to hear from what people are feeling, and very important for him to hear what our experience has been. For example, on issues like stop and frisk. How getting away from that policy made us safer, or for him to know that we have 900 Muslim American NYPD members. Those are important facts, that is not lecturing, that's giving perspective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to Gloria Borger, chief political analyst as we talk transition. One name that keeps cropping up in much of these conversations is Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner in his role. Is his role overblown? Is it not? The relationship with Governor Christie, who's now out. What are you hearing?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's complicated. Jared Kushner does not like Governor Christie. Governor Christie put his father in jail. There has been a bad relationship between the two of them. Donald Trump appointed Chris Christie to run the transition, maybe as a way to get him out of the way. Suddenly they start paying attention to the transition which I was told earlier today by a transition person who said "we didn't do that because we didn't think we were going to win."

Suddenly they pay attention to the transition then there are a handful of Christie people, including Christie himself, who are either fired or sideline so you have to ask the question who's doing it. You know the pre-existing relationship with Jared Kushner. He's the one with the power and authority perhaps to order this. This is not some midlevel staffer doing this. But then again when they say it's overblown what does that mean? Doesn't mean it's wrong, it means that maybe the President-elect had something to do with it. Maybe there's a sense in the Trump camp that Chris Christie wasn't loyal enough after the "Access Hollywood" tape. What we do know is there is a bad relationship between the two and I was also told today that let's just say that Jared is not displeased these people are gone. So, put one and one together, I don't know what you come up with.

BALDWIN: You come up with two and you made it crystal clear. As we're waiting to get names on the key White House picks, is there a possibility, Gloria Borger, of an outside political arm of the White House? So, powerful political players not sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue but having an informal advisory role?

BORGER: I think there is a good chance of that. I asked people about that and I was told yes, this was a story first in Politico and the role model is Obama's outside political arm Organizing for America, if you'll recall it's a place for people to continue to promote Donald Trump without having to be in the West Wing or administration meaning they can still go about their work and still work for Donald Trump. So, I was told today that there is a real possibility, something they're thinking about.

BALDWIN: What about this list of 29 world leaders who the Trump transition team just sent out, who the President-elect has just spoken to. Why are we looking at this list?

BORGER: Well, because there have been stories about foreign leaders in search of how to get Donald Trump on the phone and where to locate him and not getting calls back. So, they released this list it's in alphabetical order, because there was a story in the "New York Times" about the prime minister of Great Britain having to wait for her callback and Donald Trump spoke with the Egyptian head of state before our closest ally Britain. In terms of protocol --

BALDWIN: Well, maybe "e" comes before "u" because it is alphabetized by country. I'm looking at it.

BORGER: That might be a no-no. But when you talk about protocol and the way things have been done in the past you don't talk about Donald Trump. That is not what he is about that is not what his campaign is about. And that is not who he is. So, I think there will be the Trump way of doing everything in this administration. It could be different.

BALDWIN: Gloria Borger, thank you so much with the good scoop. Coming up next, fear at the border. Families fleeing violence in central and south America. Hurrying into the United States since the election of Donald Trump. Many of them were scared of the wall that that he campaigned on. They're worried they'll be deported. We are live at the U.S.-Mexico border when we come back.

[15:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: There's a lot to figure out about which immigration promises President-elect Trump will fulfill, whether he does, indeed, build a wall or a fence. I know a number of immigrant families that are not waiting to find out. The number of immigrants crossing the southwest border from Mexico into the U.S. has grown so much just in the past month that officials sent 150 agents to handle the influx of men and women, children. CNN's Polo Sandoval is live from the border there in Mission, Texas. You have been talking to these families, Polo. What are they sharing with you?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, they tell us that some of those factors that continue to fuel this latest migration surge are very similar to what we witnessed two years ago. You have the crime and poverty taking place in central American countries but what's different now is the numbers are much

higher crossing from Mexico over this river and into the United States.

[15:50:00] And they could possibly even have yet another reason for making this trip.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: It's the second south Texas border surge. And there are hardly any empty seats on the unmarked buses that pull into McAllen central station. Thousands of undocumented central American families fleeing crime and poverty are again saturating America's immigration system.

They turn themselves into authorities at the border, are processed, then released wearing an ankle monitor and the promise of returning for a court date. What is it that brings you to the United States?

CARLOS CARDONA, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT: (in Spanish)

SANDOVAL: He says the level of crime in his country is what brings him and his son Juan Carlos here.

Before heading north Carlos Cardona and his 4-year-old son made a brief stop at a shelter that opened its doors during the immigration surge of 2014. It is run by Sister Norma Pimentel. SISTER NORMA PIMENTEL, HUMANITARIAN RESPITE CENTER: The violence instead of diminishing has escalated, so we have families fearing for the lives of especially their kids.

SANDOVAL: Volunteers have been walking these families from the bus station to the shelter and back for two years now. What's new are the numbers we're seeing lately. If you hear from some of the officials here in south Texas, they will also tell you that there is another reason why so many people are rushing to the U.S.

MAYOR JIM DARLING, MAYOR MCALLEN, TEXAS: They all know about President Trump. They all know about a wall. When you talk to them. They know that.

SANDOVAL: Mayor Jim Darling suspects it's no longer just violence and poverty in central America fueling the new wave. DARLING: If you talk about building the fence and we're not going to

allow people in, you better get over here now before January and the swearing in ceremony.

SANDOVAL (through translator): Back in the shelter these new arrivals are weighing in.

So, who comes here fearing that Donald Trump planned to build a massive border wall?

Among the crowds we found 17-year-old Diriam Fuentes and her father. Fuentes tells me she fears being returned to her native Honduras. On the banks of the Rio Grande more migrants emerge out of the darkness and turn themselves into authorities. It's an unending flow of families arriving night and day.

PIMENTEL: There is a big fear in the community about what's going to happen. Ultimately, we have to respond to the fact that they're human beings.

SANDOVAL: Carlos Cardona and his son are starting the U.S. stretch of his journey like so many others who are now in their shoes. They face an uncertain future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL: Back live at the U.S.- Mexico border. I can tell you U.S. officials here in south Texas did learn a lot from the first surge that took place about two years ago. This time though, Brooke, as you mentioned about 150 border patrol agents from outside the region were sent here.

You won't find them here on the border. They're helping process all of the thousands of families in the detention centers to free up local agents to stay on the river and in the areas along the border.

BALDWIN: It's incredible to see all the hands go up in the air when you asked the question. It was stunning. in terms of being in the United States, how fearful are they?

SANDOVAL: They are at least away from the gang violence. That is a fear that they no longer have to worry about as they continue with their immigration proceedings. But the fear that they are living with now here on U.S. soil is that perhaps a Trump presidency may not necessarily understand the situation that they are going through in central America. So many of the immigrants, many of the undocumented people that I spoke to have high hopes that perhaps President Trump, once he is sworn into office, can get a better picture of what the situation is like in central America, the violence, the poverty. What's fueling them and what's driving them onto U.S. soil.

BALDWIN: Polo, thank you so much. Along the border there, U.S.- Mexico.

Right now, dozens of universities across the country, students have walked out of class today protesting President-elect Trump. The scene in L.A. we'll share the message they're trying to get across.

[15:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTEST SPEAKER, DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN RALLY: I urge everyone.

STUDENTS, DOWNTOWN MANHATTAN RALLY: I urge everyone.

PROTEST SPEAKER: To come together and fight.

STUDENTS: To come together and fight.

PROTEST SPEAKER: Fight for every right.

STUDENTS: Fight for every right.

PROTEST SPEAKER: That is threatened by Trump.

STUDENTS: That is threatened by Trump.

PROTEST SPEAKER: And his elected officials.

STUDENTS: And his elected officials.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That is downtown Manhattan, the famous arch in Washington Square Park. This is New York University students. Emblematic of what's happening across the country. Students staging walkouts to protest President-elect Trump and his stance on immigration. Demonstrations in East Los Angeles have entered day number three. Students say they want to pressure school administrators to turn their schools and universities into so-called sanctuary campuses. Many say they're being targeted by anti-immigration advocates who voted for Donald Trump.

MARVIN MARTINEZ, PRESIDENT, EAST L.A. COLLEGE: We have a little bit over 30,000 students on the campus, about 5,000 of them are undocumented. So many of them, they do fear as to what could happen to them. And no doubt that causes anxiety. There is -- no one really knows what the future holds, so that creates the sense of insecurity for them.

BALDWIN: The President-elect has said that deporting millions of criminal undocumented immigrants will be a priority once he takes office. He also pledged to block federal funding for so-called sanctuary cities.

I am Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me here today on CNN. We'll send things to Washington and my colleague, Jake Tapper, now.